James W. Walker is a highly skilled trial lawyer with more than 35 years of experience in complex litigation matters. His experience includes the litigation of complex adversary proceedings and suits in bankruptcy and federal district courts in multiple federal circuits. Walker’s practice has included the successful defense of results he achieved at the trial court level in the Fifth Circuit and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal and multiple Texas appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of Texas.
Walker has experience in prosecuting and defending commercial contract and business tort claims within the context of executive and professional liability, executive severance agreements, fraudulent transfer and related commercial torts, energy and electric utilities, and commercial insurance and reinsurance claims. Walker also has experience conducting claims investigations in significant chapter 11 bankruptcies. Walker has further experience in ICDR-AAA arbitration proceedings involving a variety of commercial disputes. In addition to his experience in the courtroom and in arbitrations, Walker enjoys substantial experience in negotiating and structuring complex dispute settlements in a variety of cases.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2027 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America | 2027 | Commercial Litigation, Bankruptcy |
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America | 2026 | Commercial Litigation, Bankruptcy |
As lead counsel, Walker represented Stairway Legacy Assets, L.P., a secured lender that had financed the prosecution of a portfolio of patent claims by a South Korean technology company. After the borrower breached the loan agreement, Stairway secured an arbitration award and final judgment exceeding $51 million. Walker represented Stairway in its intervention in patent litigation to assert its rights against a $28 million settlement reached between its borrower and one of the patent defendants — a recovery disputed by two law firms that had represented the borrower and asserted competing charging liens against the same proceeds. After prevailing in motions practice seeking to dismiss the intervention, Walker secured a summary judgment victory for Stairway in Judge Gilstrap’s court in the Eastern District of Texas. The ruling established Stairway's priority claim to the settlement proceeds over the competing charging liens asserted by the borrower's former counsel, delivering a full vindication of Stairway's rights as a secured lender. The law firms took an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in which Walker was lead counsel and handled oral argument. The Fifth Circuit's affirmance of the trial court’s grant of summary judgment was a welcome conclusion to years of heavily contested litigation.
Walker recently served as lead counsel in an ICDR AAA arbitration arising from a contractual dispute with a multinational conglomerate exposed to an $87 million commercial lease exposure and secured an award approximating 98% of the asserted damages.
Walker was lead trial counsel for the litigation trustee for the Think Finance Litigation Trust in fraudulent-transfer litigation against a publicly traded fintech lender and certain shareholders that resulted in over $100.0 million of recoveries for the estate and the voiding of $1.0 billion of consumer loans.
Walker has served as trial counsel for the creditors’ committee in the Neiman Marcus chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding and had a key role conducting an intensive investigation into potential claims against private equity owners and lenders, resulting in plan concessions that proved to be highly favorable to the debtors’ unsecured creditors.
Walker was trial counsel in an extensive investigation into certain private equity lenders on behalf of the unsecured creditors in the Hornblower Holdings chapter 11 bankruptcy, which resulted in a favorable recovery for the committee.
Walker received his B.A. from Austin College and his J.D. from Southern Methodist University. Mr. Walker is resident in our Houston office.